Supervillains 2 Chapter 24 (Patreon)

"The Deputy Director of the BSH." Claire, the owner of this repossession office, smiled and rubbed her hands as a nervous tick. "You should have told me when you arrived."

"Doesn't matter what my title is. Just here to do a job. You see, we've found that several offices such as yours have been inciting low-level criminals in the name of repossession. I’m sure you’re clean, but if you are found guilty, it’s considered organized crime. Sentencing is fifteen years, minimum." I said it casually as I twiddled my thumbs, waiting for the paperwork to arrive.

This should look like any other routine visit from the BSH. I wished I’d brought one of my analysts with me to help sort through the data.

Claire's beady eyes fell on the penny sitting in the middle of the table, and she frowned at it, trying to recall if it was hers to take.

I could see her trying to figure it out. I’d placed the penny perfectly in between us, and it seemed to unnerve her.

"That's my penny," I commented before she could take it. "While we are here, I thought I might buy a debt or two."

Claire snorted, but as she looked at the penny, her face grew slightly more concerned.

Sarah, the receptionist, hurried in with a cardboard jug of coffee and a quick dozen donuts. "Here you go."

"What about the paperwork?" Melody asked innocently. "I want to get back to fighting villains and monsters."

"Oh, you aren't in your suit. Which hero are you?" Claire asked, regaining her calm.

"Pulsar." Melody let her hand glow orange and mimed blasting the wall.

Being who she was, Melody didn't do something so needlessly destructive, like actually release the blast. She was the best of us, even if she was intimidating Claire with her power.

Claire stared at Melody’s hand for a moment before muttering to the receptionist, who slipped back out the office door.

"Don't worry, she'll be right back." Claire leaned back, tapping something on her phone. "I can't believe I have the Deputy Director and a top-tier hero in my office. Seems like there are bigger issues for you to go tackle; I've been nothing but a good girl. But happy to have you here. So, what debts were you interested in?"

Claire put down her phone and spread her hands on the table. "I'm not an idiot. You two are far too high profile to come down here just to audit me. Tell me what you want"—her eyes lingered on the penny—"and let me get on with my day."

"I’m afraid three of your collectors smashed in my front door today," I started.

Claire burst into a cursing fit before she calmed down and ran a hand through her short, greasy hair. "Are they dead?"

"No, just a little shaken up. Demoness lives with me and didn't much appreciate it. Really, I'm sure they violated a number of the legal rules around debt collection." I calmly waited.

"Understood. I'll just take this penny, and you tell me which debts you want." She grabbed the penny, greedily stuffing it in her pocket with a smile.

"Mona," I said without hesitation.

Claire grunted, swiping at her phone. "Going to need a last name."

She faked that casualness. There was no doubt in my mind she knew exactly what debt I was talking about.

"The Mona as in the popstar. She has to be one of your largest debts." I frowned at the repossession woman.

"Oh..." Claire frowned and took the penny out of her pocket, placing it back on the table with a force of will. "I’m sorry, but that one isn't for sale. She makes us... a lot."

Melody stood up, knocking her chair over. "Bullshit. You were just willing to sell it to us, and she's been paying her debt for years."

"Exactly. She's a cash cow. I really wish she'd go sing again so that I could hike up her minimum. Right now, she's not even paying the interest! I’m sorry, I need that debt."

"That's illegal," Melody declared.

I put a hand on her as I felt several flares of Ki appear outside. "It actually isn't. Just immoral." My attention turned to Claire. "Who did you call?"

"Look, heroes sometimes can be a pain, so I called a few friends that can deal with heroes."

Given how quickly they appeared, it seemed that her organization was tied into a group of supers. I’d assumed there was a criminal leaning to her business, but it was possible she was deeper into illegal activities than I’d thought.

I stood just as the door to the conference room shattered and octopus tentacles swelled as they poured in.

Melody didn't miss a beat, raising her hands and firing off powerful orange blasts, cutting the tentacles off and pushing them back. "What the fuck?"

"Someone needs to teach the BSH a lesson. Your time of running roughshod over this city is ending." Claire's power flared, and a barrier formed around her as she continued to sit in her chair without a care in the world. "Two chumps from the Bureau. One isn't even powered."

I froze the tentacles in their tracks while I reached past her barrier and choked her where she sat. "I’m afraid that’s an assumption that could get you killed."

She scrabbled at her neck, unable to do anything about my power. "'Elp." She finally recovered a bit and tried to text whoever was outside.

I smashed her phone to pieces. "Who's out there?"

I gave her enough of her windpipe to speak. If I took away her power, I was worried that I'd frighten her to the point that she wouldn't give me answers.

"Your worst nightmares," Claire wheezed, and I grew impatient.

“All you had to do was take the penny. Don’t let it be said that I didn’t pay you.” I said.

The penny shot into her barrier and stopped. I had to concentrate on pushing the penny until it started to glow with the pressure.

“Wait, we can talk.” Claire waved her hands, trying, too late, to stop this.

She had already called muscle. It was over. “I just want to give you a penny,” I said.

The penny shattered her power, and with how hard I was pushing it, the penny hit her so hard that it blew the entire upper half of her body off.

I turned back to the tentacles that were backing up and hammering into the barrier I had set up.

“Miles, what do we do?” Melody asked, focused on the tentacles and not seeming to care about the woman I had just splattered.

"Wait. I want to meet the face of this nightmare instead of a bunch of sloppy tentacles." I expected for them to withdraw and someone else to come forward, but they surprised me.

A seven-foot-tall scaly bastard teleported into the room with a woman that looked like she was half crab.

I met his eye for just a moment and slammed all the KI around him away like swatting a fly. His body flinched, and his eyes went wide when he didn’t teleport.

"Stop him!" Ramon screamed and turned to rush at the tentacles, only to hit a wall.

Melody dropped the gravity onto the crab woman, who suddenly found herself rolling into the air. But then Melody multiplied the gravity and slammed the woman onto her back.

"Bitch. Don't touch my man." Several blasts shot out of Melody's hands and slid the crab woman across the floor.

The crab woman didn't seem terribly injured. Her carapace was tough.

"You won't stop us. Heroes are finished," Ramon declared.

I was holding his power at bay, but I frowned. Even with my upgraded power, I was still struggling to hold it back. It was like the Ki was fighting me to try and get back into his body.

Whatever Monster Fruit did to them really changed their powers.

Not looking to deal with reinforcements, I decided to speed up the process and take out a little of my frustration at the same moment. Using my power, I broke both of his legs and forced him to the ground.

"Those are big words for someone who can't even force me to lift a finger." I sat back down and leaned back as I caged in the crab woman as well. I reached out and pulled the octopus woman towards us as I built a cage around her.

"Do you have a thing for mollusks?" I asked Ramon. "Because I'm sensing a theme."

Ramon only spat at me.

"So, what the fuck are you doing? Giving this Monster Fruit to repo women?"

Ramon seemed like a talker, the guy that couldn't resist bragging. And I was right.

"We are recruiting from all corners of the city. Those of us who weren't born with the comfort of A grade or S grade powers are tired of the powerful running this city." His lizard face sneering looked odd to me. “Your time is running out.”

As he spoke, I positioned the tentacle woman in the room's corner, even as tentacles spilled out from her sleeves and filled the space I had allotted her.

"She should really be a little more careful. What if I just killed you for her continued struggles?"

"Even if you kill us, there's nothing you can do," Ramon snorted. "It has already begun. Even as we speak, Monster Fruit is spreading through the city. People are picking it up as a beacon of hope that they might be able to make a difference in this world."

"So what? You flood the city with Monster Fruit, and poof, you end up at profit?" I was genuinely curious what end game he was driving toward.

He frowned, as if it was obvious. "They will rise up against the heroes and those that have shackled us since the beginning of time. The world is ready to be remade. All that’s needed is for the masses to be empowered."

"Sure. Of course." I nodded along as if I agreed with him.

But I knew the truth. All it would create were more villains. More people hungry for power, who gained a taste and then constantly yearned for more. They would tear each other and the entire city apart if they ever overthrew the BSH.

As much as I hated politicians, they were still the best option. Far better than a villain king. Sadly, the people most deserving of leadership typically didn’t want power. That had just been the way of humanity.

Hell, Melody would make a better leader than those in charge.

I watched Ramon, trying to decide my next move. He was too dangerous to leave alive; he was the crux of the Monster Fruit distribution. And I was concerned about the BSH’s ability to properly contain him. I didn’t want to have to worry about that constantly.

He was too much trouble for me to leave alive. A hole blossomed in his head, and I relaxed my power as Ki stopped wanting to reach him. It felt good to not be fighting the ki.

The other two had seen too much, and frankly, I wasn't feeling like seafood. Both of them burst like water balloons against the wall. But I made sure to keep Melody clear of the splash zone.

"Uh..." Melody paused, staring around at us. "You wrecked them. Like that wasn't even a challenge for you, was it?"

"Not really. I just wanted to hear what he'd have to say." I shrugged. "What did you think of it?"

Melody held her arm across her chest and idly scratched at it. "It sort of made sense. When I was a B grade super, I was jealous of those with stronger powers. You boosting me into A grade actually helped me a lot."

She was uncomfortable even saying that, but I understood. Her change in power made her more in control of her life.

It was just built into human society. People grouped up with those who were like them, like school children letting grades designate their future and friend groups.

Given my distance from the system, I hadn't thought about it much, but becoming an A grade hero probably made her feel quite a bit better about herself.

"If you want to try again, we could see if your power has healed enough for me to expand it again." I understood where she was coming from. I had just chosen to boost my own power.

"I'd like that." Melody couldn't pull her eyes away from the gore. "But how do we explain this?"

Ramon had a hole in his head, and the other three supers had been reduced to paste, painting the walls of the room.

Melody raised an excellent question. "I'm not sure,” I replied.

I stepped out of the room and saw the receptionist huddling under her desk. "Everything is okay. We need you to do something for us, though."

"Wh-what?" Sarah the receptionist shuddered when she stared at me as if she were peering at the devil himself.

"I need you to transfer over Mona's debt to me."

"Miles!" Melody scolded me.

I shrugged. "It was what we came to do. I don't want it to get sold around and someone else to cause a problem."

"Sure." The receptionist hurried to comply, typing furiously on her computer, as if she thought I'd murder her too. Which, to be fair, was still up for debate.

Thinking of another option for her, I pulled out my tablet, sending Angelina a message to come to the repo building.

"Why is no one coming?" Melody asked, looking out the front door. "They smashed in a wall and made a ruckus."

"It’s probably a bad enough neighborhood that no one wants to come check, or people just don't care about it. I’m guessing there’s been loud noises here before or even fights."I shrugged, not really caring why. The fewer people that came by, the better.

The receptionist was scribbling away on a piece of paper and checking the computer under my watch.

"Do you guys have any recordings from these cameras?" I pointed to the one in the corner of the office.

She swallowed loudly. "They aren't connected to anything. See, no wires," she pointed out.

I reached up with my power and pulled it off the wall; it actually was just stuck there with command strips.

Claire had been so cheap that she didn't even have working cameras. The poor receptionist had probably hoped nobody would call them on the bluff more than once. Repo businesses weren’t exactly well loved.

My tablet dinged with a new note from Angelina. She was on her way, but it would take her some time.

I frowned and reached out with my powers, curious to test my new limits. I’d already had a pretty good range, but as I extended the range, I lost the ability to sense anything clearly.

This time, I let my power flow over everything as it fanned out. I used my sense of kinetic force to feel for things that were stable, like buildings, and those that weren't.

The sensations that returned formed a gray featureless landscape in my mind as it tried to make sense of the echoes.

This was new.

As the city became mapped out in my head, I decided to push it further. I kept on stretching until I found North Point prison, and I felt around for everyone that was moving.

It wasn’t long before I identified one that was clearly in a rush to leave. I switched my senses, working to feel her Ki. And it was incredibly familiar; I’d found Angelina.

I followed her, waiting until she was out of the prison.

Once she was away from the cameras, she started climbing up onto a roof. But mid-climb, I snagged her and wrapped light around her before jerking her across the city. She fought for a moment before she seemed to realize it was me.

As she grew closer, I worked to slow the momentum, but unfortunately, I halted a little too fiercely. She splattered across the protective bubble I had around her.

I had reduced Angelina to a lavender and green splatter in the middle of the office.

"Miles, what the fuck?" Melody stared wide-eyed at the smashed Angelina.

A moment later, the splatter moved and collected itself into Angelina. She held her head with her hand. "What was that?"

"I was curious and wanted to test something. Thank you for being more durable than the others." I felt a little awkward. Without being in the sphere, I hadn't naturally corrected some of the forces. I had ended up letting too much of the kinetic energy transfer to her during the flight.

"That was you, from here?" Melody gasped. "You reached across the entire fucking city?!"

I shrugged. "Never tried it before. If I wasn't so familiar with her, I'm not sure I could have found her so easily."

Everything was a gray, featureless landscape. I only recognized her because I was so familiar with her power.

"And his power has been boosted. We don't know if he'd have been able to do this before. But please, warn a girl next time." Angelina pulled herself together, quite literally, and stepped out of the kinetic bubble I'd made. "So, what did you need?"

I pointed to the receptionist. "She's wrapping something up for me. She’s been helpful, and I'd rather not kill her, so can you blur her recent memories?"

"Yeah, we can do that. There are some drugs with known effects that prevent long-term memory retention. If we pair that with knocking her out, she'll wake up without being able to recall her morning." Angelina's hands dripped on the receptionist's desk.

The lady's hand shook as she finished up the paperwork. "We've transferred the debt to this document. Of course, you'd still have to go to a bank and get it registered to you."

"If I lose it?"

"Then there will be no owner of the debt. I have it in the books as sold here." She swallowed loudly.

"Wonderful." I stashed the paper in my back pocket. It would make a wonderful gift for Mona to tear up. "Angelina, do your thing."

Angelina leaned over the desk. "Don't worry. This is by far the better of your two options, which is forget or die. Agree?"

The receptionist nodded as Angelina's hands hovered over her coffee mug, dripping clear liquid into it for several moments. "Drink."

It didn't help that the coffee was cold, but she slugged it back like a professional. We only had to wait a moment before her eyes lost focus, and she nodded.

"Now, if you'd deposit me back at the prison, I can play this off as going out for a quick break and not be placed anywhere near here. I have a parole officer to please." Angelina smirked, putting her hands on her hips and waiting for me to take action.

She seemed to be enjoying herself. She loved when I used my power at larger levels. I think for her this was like me gallantly carrying her across the city.

I threw her back across town and deposited her, this time being more careful in the landing. Letting go, she moved out of the alley towards the prison.

Melody wrapped her arm around mine. "Come on. We should get back to work, too."

I made us invisible and brought us out of the site of destruction. The sleeping receptionist was still passed out on her desk.